Mushfiqur Rahim, the captain of winless Beximco Dhaka, said they are confident of making a strong comeback in the ongoing Bangabandhu T20 League.

Dhaka have lost both of their first two games— the first one was against Minister Group Rajshahi and the next one came against Gazi Group Chattogram. On both occasions, they batted first and failed to defend 169 and 88 respectively.

Mushfiqur, however, believes they still have the chance to play well and make a strong comeback in the event.

“I think our approach was correct in the previous game (before last). We also have some positive aspects from the last game. The track was different, still, Naim batted well. I think that in T20 cricket, you have to endure this sort of days. We have six more games to play in the league phase of this event. We’ll put our best foot forward to do well and rectify the mistakes we have made,” Mushfiqur told after their second game on Thursday.

“We needed to have some good partnerships while batting. The wicket was sporting enough. We have to be more focused on selecting the shots. You have to improve your game every day,” he added.

Dhaka will take on Gemcon Group Khulna on November 30. Khulna won their first game against Fortune Barishal riding on the heroic of Ariful Haque who chased down a target of 22 runs in the last over bowled by Mehidy Hasan Miraz. However, they lost their second game against Rajshahi.

After a gap of a day, Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020 will resume on Saturday. In the first game of the day, Chattogram will take on Khulna, in the second game, Barishal will face off Rajshahi.

Riding on the fifty of captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, Minister Group Rajshahi continued their winning streak in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020. In their second game of the event, Rajshahi beat Gemcon Khulna by six wickets on Thursday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

Khulna won the toss and opted to bat first, but failed to set a challenging total on the board. Riding on the highest individual score of 41 by Ariful Haque, they posted 146 for six in 20 overs.

In reply, Najmul hit 55 off 34 balls with six fours and three sixes and set up a solid foundation for Khulna. Anisul Islam Emon, who had impressed earlier hitting five boundaries and one six, failed to replicate his performance and posted only two this time. He fell prey to Al Amin Hossain as the first wicket to fall while chasing a moderate total.

After losing the first wicket at 25, Najmul and Rony Talukdar added 47 runs in the second-wicket stand. Rishad Ahmed, the 18-year-old leg-spinner, picked up the next two wickets— Rony (26) and Najmul (55) — keeping the hope of Khulna alive.

But Mohammad Ashraful (25*), Fazle Mahmud (24) and Nurul Hasan (11*) delivered good performance to ensure the second successive win for Gemcon Rajshahi.

Rajshahi ended up on 147 for four in 17.2 overs and sealed the game by six wickets. In the first game, they beat Beximco Dhaka.

Earlier, Khulna scored 146 runs for six in 20 overs. While Imrul Kayes suffered another duck, Shakib Al Hasan (12), Mahmudullah Riyad (7) and Jahrul Islam failed to impress with the bat. However, Ariful (41*), Shamim Hossain (35) and Anamul Haque (26) and Shahidul Islam (17) did well.

Ariful, who smashed four sixes in the last match, hit Mukidul off for two sixes during the 19th over of this game. He helped Khulna to get close to 150-run mark. But due to the lean display from other batsmen, Khulna failed to offer a tough challenge.

For Rajshahi, Mukidul Islam took two wickets for 44 while Ebadat Hossain, Mahedi Hasan and Arafat Sunny bagged one wicket each.

After this game, the authority of Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020, conducted a one-minute silence to pay homage to late football legend Diego Armando Maradona, 60, who passes away last night. The players of Gemcon Khulna, Minister Group Rajshahi, Beximco Dhaka and Gazi Group Chattogram were presented while observing the silence, which was telecast live.

Also read: Bangabandhu T20 Cup: Rajshahi stun Dhaka in event opener

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has elected Greg Barclay of New Zealand as its new chairman. 

Greg Barclay, the head of New Zealand Cricket, secured an all-crucial 11th vote from Cricket South Africa in a second round of voting to beat Imran Khwaja, who had been the interim chairman after Shashank Manohar stepped down from the post in July this year, according to espncricinfo report on Wednesday.

Barclay had 10 votes to Khwaja's six in the first round of voting last week, but ICC stipulations meant he needed 11 - a two-thirds majority of the 16-person ICC Board. 

That important vote came in the form of Cricket South Africa (CSA) this time and Barclay now becomes, after Manohar, the second independent chairman of the world cricket body. 

It also ends a secretive and long drawn-out process which has brought to the surface clear divisions among those running the game, and how they see it being run.

Working through those divisions, deepest around the balance between ICC events and bilateral cricket in the next cycle will be front and centre of his briefs. That had become one of the major running themes in this election. Barclay, a well-respected administrator admired for his overseeing of the game in New Zealand, is a believer in the primacy of bilateral cricket.

"New Zealand Cricket's been pretty clear in our view around the bilateral playing arrangements, we want to make sure from an international point of view that there is relevance and currency and interest in the international programme. We certainly don't want to be totally reliant on an ICC events programme," Barclay told earlier this year.

Those comments had come after a meeting in Mumbai with officials from the BCCI, CA, ECB and CSA in which the five appeared to find common ground in wanting to push back against the ICC's wishes to squeeze an extra ICC event in the next cycle.

"The commonality in terms of the five is that we've been quite well voiced that we want to see our bilateral rights protected because we see genuine value in them," Barclay said. "The Black Caps are playing well at the moment, they're reasonably well ranked, they're getting good opportunity to play against some of the better countries and we're fortunate that we produce reasonable revenue out of it. So absolutely we want to see those bilateral rights catered for."

The other side, represented by Khwaja, wants to push for the primacy of ICC events in the next rights cycle. Last year, the ICC Board consented to include an extra global tournament in the next cycle, beginning after the 2023 World Cup, meaning that the next eight-year cycle (to 2031) would have one ICC global event (men's and women's) every year: two 50-over World Cups, four T20 World Cups and two editions of this extra event, which is understood to be in the 50-overs format and could be similar to a Champions Trophy, but with six sides.

A commercial lawyer by trade, Barclay has served as a director of NZC since 2012 - a position he will give up to become ICC chair. He was a director of 2015 Men's World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand, and is a former board member and chairman of the Northern Districts Cricket Association. He is also an experienced company director holding board positions with various New Zealand and Australian companies.

"It is an honour to be elected as the chair of the International Cricket Council and I would like to thank my fellow ICC directors for their support," Barclay said in an ICC release. "I hope we can come together to lead the sport and emerge from the global pandemic in a strong position and poised for growth.

"I look forward to working in partnership with our members to strengthen the game in our core markets as well as grow it beyond that ensuring more of the world can enjoy cricket. I take my position as a custodian of the game very seriously and am committed to working on behalf of all 104 ICC Members to create a sustainable future for our sport.

"I'd like to thank Imran Khwaja for his leadership as acting ICC chair during a difficult period for the game and I look forward to continuing a close working relationship with him in the future." Barclay added.

Right-handed batsman Ariful Haque smashed four sixes in five balls to help his team Gemcon Khulna register a win in a dramatic fashion against Fortune Barishal by four wickets in Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020 on Tuesday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

In the first game of the day, Mehedi Hasan of Minister Group Rajshahi defended 9 runs in the last over and his team won the match against Beximco Dhaka. In the second game of the day, Mehidy Hasan Miraz failed to defend 22 runs in the last over.

Replying to Barishal’s 152, Khulna needed 29 runs in the last 12 balls. Shaidul Islam and Ariful only managed seven runs from the 19th over bowled by Taskin Ahmed. In the last over, they needed 22 runs to win the game.

Ariful struck two sixes off first two balls over the long-on area. He declined a single in the third ball. And in the four and fifth ball, he smashed two more sixes, and this time over the mid-wicket area, which has ensured a win for Khulna.

Ariful remained unbeaten for 48 off 34 balls. Before scoring 24 runs off the last five balls of the match, Ariful were at 24 off 29 balls.

Before Ariful’s upturn, top-order of Khulna displayed disappointing batting performance. The openers, Anamul Haque (4) and Imrul Kayes (0) failed to help the team at the top of the order while Shakib Al Hasan (15) and captain Mahmudullah Riyad (17) failed to go on riding on their solid start.

After losing four wickets for 36 runs, Khulan were stuttering in the middle. But in the fifth wicket stand, Jahurul Islam (31) and Shamim Hossain (26) added 42 runs to keep their team alive in the race.

But, while posting 122 on the board, both of Jahurul and Shamim returned to the dressing room. The onus was on Shaidul and Ariful to score the remaining 32 runs to seal the game, and they did it in style.

Khulna ended on 155 for six in 19.5 overs and won the game by 4 wickets.

For Barishal, the pace-bowling duo- Taskin Ahmed and Sumon Khan- bagged two wickets each while Mehidy and Kamrul Islam Rabbi took one wicket each.

Earlier, Barishal posted 152 runs for 9 wickets in 20 overs. Parvez Hossain Emon, the member of Bangladesh’s U-19 World Cup-winning team, hit 51 off 42 with three fours and four sixes. His U-19 teammate Towhid Hridoy was the second-highest runs scorer for Barishal posting 27 while Mahidul Islam Ankon scored 21. Tamim Iqbal (15), Afif Hossain (2) and Irfaan Shukkur (11) failed to well in this game. They eventually, ended up on 151 for 9.

For Khulna, right-arm pacer Shahidul Islam bagged four wickets conceding 17 runs in four overs while Shaiful Islam and Hasan Mahmud took two wickets each. Shakib Al Hasan, in his comeback game, took one wicket.

Also read: Bangabandhu T20 Cup: Rajshahi stun Dhaka in event opener

In the opening game of Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020, Minister Group Rajshahi stunned Beximco Dhaka winning the game by two runs at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Despite hitting three sixes in the 19th over, Muktar Ali failed to score nine runs in the last over bowled by Mehedi Hasan, which resulted in a two-run defeat for Mushfiqur Rahim-led Dhaka.

Dhaka needed to amass 36 runs in the last three overs to reach a target of 170 runs in 20 overs. In the 18th over, bowled by Ebadat Hossain, Dhaka managed only six runs. But they made a good comeback in the 19th over, bowled by Farhad Reza, scoring 21 runs riding on the three sixes by Muktar.

They needed nine runs in the last over. Muktar missed the first three balls bowled cleverly by Mehedi. Muktar hit a four off the fourth ball. The very next delivery was a no-ball. The right-handed Muktar disappointed Dhaka in the fifth ball— he failed to score anything. And in the last ball, he managed a mere single.

Eventually, Dhaka ended up on 167 for five and lost the game by two runs.

Replying to Rajshahi’s 169, Dhaka posted 55 runs losing first three wickets— Tazid Hasan (18), Yasir Ali (9), Mohammad Naim (26). In the fourth wicket stand, Mushfiqur and Akbar Ali added 71 runs. Akbar fell prey to Farhad Reza for 34 while hitting a boundary, and Mushfiqur added 41 to the board. Mushfiqur was dismissed by Ebadat while playing a scoop.

Sabbir Rahman and Muktar remained unbeaten for five and 27 respectively.

For Rajshahi, Mehedi, Ebadat, Farhad and Arafat Sunny bagged one wicket each.

Earlier, Mehedi smashed 50 off 32 balls with three fours and four sixes to propel his team to 169 for nine in 20 overs.

Mushfiqur, the captain of Dhaka, won the toss and sent Rajshahi to bat first. Najmul Hossain Shanto, captain of Rajshahi and Anisul Islam Emon added 31 runs in 3.5 overs opening the innings.

Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed scalped the first wicket removing Najmul for 17 off 16 balls with two sixes. While going to 65 from 31, Rajshahi lost four more wickets— Rony Taluker (6), Mohammad Ashraful (5), Emon (35) and Fazle Mahmud (0).

But in the sixth wicket stand, Nurul Hasan and Mehedi added 89 runs. Nurul made 39 off 20 balls with two fours and three sixes. And, Mehedi smashed the first fifty of the event in style. Eventually, Rajshahi posted 169 for nine in 20 overs.

For Dhaka, Muktar Ali took three wickets conceding 22 in four overs while Mehedi Hasan Rana, Nasum Ahmed and Nayeem Hasan took one wicket each.

In the second game of the day, Gemcon Khulna took on Fortune Barishal at the same venue. This match will be marked as Shakib Al Hasan’s comeback after serving a two-year ban, with one year is suspended, which was imposed on the allrounder by the ICC due to failing to report corrupt approaches made to him by the bookmakers.